Avilien

Darkside

Anna held her stomach as she rolled around on the sofa laughing, dropping the controller and leaving Brit at the point of rabid explosion. The whole fiasco made her pull out her flaming sword, and she realised that the décor felt familiar. As if she had been here or somewhere similar in recent days. The guild crest looked like one she should remember and as she stared at it, all she could recall was the very first destruction of her guild—the destruction of her guild hall and the theft of all the guild's gold. It fuelled her anger even more until she remembered meeting the man of her dreams, dressed in the finest dragon-cloth armour a mage could wear. Awesome Biscuit, her self-proclaimed husband.

"Don't mind Anna," said Nagori as she hurried across the room to what looked like her computer desk. A pink metal computer with a pink leather gaming chair; the same setup as in the basement of Warehouse 207. She rifled through one of the top wooden drawers whilst sitting down, and pulled out a red packet of popcorn.

"Now, tell me more about this Necromancer you need us to help you with." Nagori crossed her legs and started to devour the toffee-coated snack.

Luke had heard that Nagori enjoyed drama, gossip, and love stories. She sat on the edge of the computer chair and ate faster and faster in anticipation of the story to follow.

"Are you seriously going to hear them out?" Anna asked as she stopped laughing and looked at Nagori, while propping herself up on the sofa.

"I sure am. We both know whom they mean, and my Nagori senses tell me there is a tale of dramatic woe in this. I intend to hear it out and weep if the need arises. See, I even have tissues ready," said Nagori as she wrapped her bright pink lips around another piece of sticky popcorn and pulled a box of Kleenex out from the side of her monitor.

Luke remained standing as Brit dismissed her sword and headed for one of the puffy black bean bag chairs piled up in the centre. Sinking into one, Brit looked ready for war; the cheery aura surrounding her had gone.

"Brit needs help deleting a level-ten Necromancer called Nate. Nate being the famous game vlogger. According to Brit, he is the one responsible for those towns disappearing across England. News reports say people have gone missing, but the truth is Nate used his Avilien class to delete them," Luke explained."One of the towns he hit was Brit's home. She lost her parents and has been tracking him ever since. She followed him here, but since he out-levels her, she can't get her revenge on him. Nate will attack our town with a horde of undead minions, any day now. It's in all our best interests to stop him. So will you help us?"

Anna laughed harder than she did before, and almost crushed Amilia in the process. "This is priceless," she cried.

Brit's misfortune and misery acted like a delicious sweet to both Nagori and Anna.

"We know exactly who Nate is, but first...do you know what the number one bestselling item is in Black Wonderland right now? And why people have started to travel all the way from the other side of the globe to a dinky little place hidden behind the bleachers?" Nagori looked towards Luke as she put the empty packet of popcorn in the bin under her desk.

Judging by the question posed and the amount of illegal goods knocking around, Luke assumed the item in question was also illegal. He didn't have a clue as to what it could be, and his face gave Nagori that answer.

"Information, you noobs," said Anna. For a moment, she sounded like Nebs.

"Exactly," said Nagori with a finger in the air."As of ten days ago, we are now selling information about Avilien and the update. Depending on the money we receive, we give bits and pieces of information out about weapons, classes, stats, and game guides. For everything we know, that costs fifty thousand. Even Mock doesn't know we do this. He still thinks we're shifting illegal software and hacking programs."